There are always so many things to say about Madeeha! Where do I start?
1.) She all of a sudden has an obsession with fish sticks. It's been about 1 1/2 weeks now that she
refuses to eat chicken and constantly asks for fish. She wants them for breakfast and dinner.
2.) Madeeha still really LOVES chocolate. She is constantly asking for treats and sweets and marshmallows. I've been somewhat successful at telling her that she can't have any sweets until she finishes her meal. It doesn't always work, but I have been able to get her to eat a little bit more with the added incentive of occasional sweets afterward.
3.) Her manners are really good! She gets a little off track when we have too many people with kids at the house, but she tries her best. We have to acknowledge her when she says thanks or excuse me. She excuses us as well. If I snort to loud when sniffing or if anybody lets out a little burp, she says "Excuse me, excuse me". Then I have to say excuse me. Then she says "You're excused." She makes sure to say excuse me every time she burps or passes gas. And she still thinks that it's hilarious to pass gas. The louder, the better. She is really good about saying thank you, especially "Oh, thank you soooo much!". She's really very sweet.
4.) She still has no interest in potty training. But, for the past couple of days, she sometimes tells me whenever she is peeing.
5.) Her absolute favorite movie is the old school Care Bears. She quotes that movie throughout the day. There is an evil spirit in that movie with a meniachal laugh. She runs around all day saying "Muah ha ha ha haaaaa". And then she says "N.i.c.h.o.l.a.ssssss". That's the name of the boy in the movie who is being influenced by the spirit. She also learned to constantly use the word 'anymore' from that movie. When she's done eating or finished playing with a particular toy, she says "I don't want that _____ a.n.y.more".
6.) She loves to sing songs, especially the theme songs to her cartoons. And she loves it if I sing them with her.
7.) She is always telling us "Oh look! It's a bear!". She says that while pointing to the rocking chair or in a dark corner. She also says that she sees dinosaurs, monsters, parrots and a little cactus. One of her favorite games is to run like crazy and say "I'm scared, I'm scared!" and then jump on us or just run for safety on the couch. She often tells me that we have monsters in our bathroom.
8.) Bathing is still her favorite activity. It doesn't matter how mad she is...if I offer her a bath, she happily runs upstairs, stripping the whole way. She still doesn't like it when I rinse her hair. As a matter of fact she absolutely hates it. But now she likes to rub the soap in her hair and play with it. She just started that a couple of days ago.
9.) She's getting much better about riding in the car. Sometimes she loses it, but it's been a lot easier lately. We still only try to ride around when she's about to fall asleep. She does get carsick sometimes. Hopefully when she gets a little older, she'll be able to tell us whenever she's not feeling very well.
10.) One of her favorite toys right now is her winnie the pooh car. She sits on it a lot and she pushes a few times with her feet and then she lifts them up and coasts on the hardwood floor until she reaches the carpet.
11.) She used to love to just have stickers and put them on her shirt or just play with them with her fingers. But, this week she is plastering them EVERYWHERE! We have to check ourselves before we leave the house. We have stickers on our butt, face and the bottom of our socks. It's really getting annoying, but she loves them so much that I keep giving them to her. She also likes to chew on them.
12.) For the past week or so, she cuddles with me and says "You're my baby."
13.) We had a bunch of kids over the other day and Imran came home early from work. He went to Madeeha and wanted to kiss her and she told him to go to the office. :D
14.) She's still a wannabe drug addict. Imran had to take medicine after oral surgery and she wanted some so bad. She would beg for his medicine and then she'd give up and just ask for her happy pills.
15.) This week she has decided to be very afraid of bugs. The weather was nice for an entire week, so we spent some time outside. Anything she saw that looked like a bug or if it was just a small black spot, she stomped on it and twisted her foot so that she could kill it. I'm sure she'll get over it soon. She never was afraid of bugs before.
16.) We have our exercise equipment in the basement. On the basement door we have a pet door that's bolted shut. There is a large peep hole in it. When one of us goes in the basement, we can look back up the stairs and see Madeeha's giant eye looking at us. She also likes to throw small objects through that hole. We often find random stuff scattered on the basement stairs.
17.) Hip hop and Indian music are still her favorites. But, she loves Beyonce's 'Single Ladies' video. Imran always plays it for her on the computer. It's catchy and the entire video is dance, so she loves it. It's really funny to listen to her sing along with all of the songs on the radio. She already tells me what I can and cannot listen to in the car. I'll change the station when I don't feel like hearing a particular song and she'll protest. If I turn it back, she'll get quiet. I'm tired of hearing that Alicia Key's slow song, I think it's called 'No One'. If it comes on I try to change the station before she notices it, but she always catches it and makes me listen to it.
18.) She feeds the fish every night. I put the food in the lid. Madeeha carries it with both hands very carefully. Then I pick her up and let her pour it into the aquarium. She loves doing that. She doesn't want to say "Feed the fish". She says "Fone the fish."
19.) Two things that I have not been able to get her to do is a.) Answer me or anyone when they ask her what her name is and b.) Answer someone when they ask her how old she is. She still won't asnwer me, but she is all of a sudden introducing us to everyone and everything. She saw the moon outside and started introducing herself and then pointing to us and showing the moon who her parents are. She walks up to people in public, whether they acknowledge her or not, and starts the introductions. She still won't tell anyone how old she is.
20.) When it's time for a diaper change, she does a backdive to the floor. I have to be prepared to grab her. I guess she just assumes that mommy will always take care of it. She also demands to see her poop when I'm finished dressing her.
21.) She likes to act like a puppy. She pants and licks. She licks everything whether she's acting like a puppy or not. Her mouth is pretty much right at counter level now. So, when we're in the bathroom, she just starts at one end and slurps her way all the way down the counter. I try to tell her how disgusting that is, but you know Madeeha. She also likes to lick my pants. When I'm busy cooking or brushing my teeth, she'll walk up behind me and give me a quick lick on my butt! I have absolutely no privacy left at all.
22.) She can still spot planes from a gazillion miles away. Even when we're in the car and we don't notice it, she'll point one out that is just a little grey speck far off in the sky. She is VERY observant. We can't get anything past her.
23.) Her favorite song for the past couple of months has been 'Hush little baby." For about a month, she wouldn't allow me to sing any other songs to her. After each bath, I wrap her in 2 big towels and lay on the bed with her and sing. We used to sing about 5 different songs. But, she refused and I could only sing 'hush little baby'. When I would try to sing something else, like 'Itsy Bitsy Spider', she would just say "No, no, no, no...no itsy bitsy".
24.) She's starting to request socks when just hanging out around the house. She'll request a particular color of socks and won't take anything else. I have a few house socks with the friction on the bottom. It is in star shapes and she likes to wear them so she can endlessly pick at those stars with her nails. She wears regular socks too when she just wants to pick a color. But, she hasn't asked for socks in a couple of days, so maybe she's forgotten now.
25.) I just asked Imran for help with this list. He said "She can be the most annoying thing in the world sometimes." That's because she's being a pest right now. He just got a heart and exercise monitoring watch in the mail today. He's trying to get it set up and she wants to touch, touch, touch, so he's getting a bit aggravated. He says that when she walks up to him, the monitor shows that his heart rate goes up. She's a walking ball of stress at times.
26.) Madeeha is kind of rude whenever my neighbor arrives in the afternoon to pick up her baby. I open the door and Madeeha looks down and says "Awwww" in a disappointing voice. She usually won't say hi, although she really loves my neighbors. She always asks for her. Her name is Bhavya and the husband's name is Ashok. She asks for them on a regular basis.
27.) Madeeha is still very tall. We've run into a couple of 5 yr olds lately, and she is almost as tall as they are.
28.) She still goes to bed at midnight or later. I wake her up at 8:00 in the morning, she takes one nap and then she stays up until I go to bed with her. The time change was rough. We've stayed up until 1:30 a.m. almost every night. I'm a walking zombie and she feels great.
29.) She loves to walk around the house and have pretend conversations with things. And she loves to make 'phone calls'. Sometimes she'll put a play phone up to her ear and walk around in circles in the living room and just laugh and jibber jabber for 5 whole minutes.
30.) She still loves 'tea and cracker time' with daddy. She gets her own stash of graham crackers, sits on the table in front of him, and dips her crackers into his tea.
31.) She's finally obeying the time out rules again, for the most part. Just this week I've been able to make her say "I'm sorry" in order to get out of time out jail. We'll see how long that lasts.
I wish that all of you could see her. She'd make you laugh and melt your heart at the same time. I stare at her all of the time because she is so cute. I get to hear her talk all day so I'm used to it, but you'd really be surprised at how grown up she is and how she talks. I sometimes wish that I could keep a video camera on all day to capture everything. She's a riot.
